


The Waste

by Pink_Disney



Category: Motorcity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 20:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4801574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_Disney/pseuds/Pink_Disney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Burners discover that Deluxe doesn't have Motorcity completely enclosed. They go to investigate a gate, and trigger a chain of events which shape the next few years of their lives.</p><p>This is an ongoing series, and depending on the reception of the first two chapters I may continue the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Set-up

Chapter 1: The Set-up

He was sure he was about to die. He could tell by the screaming and the explosions and the look on Mikey’s face. The Burners were dead this time. Not captured. Not defeated. Just dead, and it all happened so fast.

They had known about this gate-like structure for a week now. Mikey stumbled across it on accident during one of his joy-rides. He was quick to tell the others and eager to explore this great unknown. There was a world outside their little bubble of a city and that excited him.

Chuck wasn’t so excited. To him this gate looked more like a gaping wound that was just inviting trouble like an infection. His building fear was the fever and his worried thoughts were the just the unpleasant sting. That’s probably why he was so hesitant. That’s probably why he tried to put off telling the others about the signal he got from outside. In the end he knew he would feel guilty for not sharing this new information with the others. Especially since the signal was a call for help.

He knew it was a trap. Chuck could feel it rattle in his very soul, This was a trap! All the other Burners suspected it too but they didn’t feel it like he did. They just thought of it as a possibility, not an inevitability. They all piled into their cars, all willing to take this chance, all ready for a real fight.

They weren’t ready for this.

Mike had parked just outside the gate. Chuck watched him take a deep breath and grin to himself. He looked so confident. His almost smug grin always made Chuck feel a little more at ease, no matter how scared he was or how much he doubted. 

Chuck just sighed and got out of Mutt. He walked over to Julie who smiled at him. He never had tell her about his fears. She always had a way of knowing when Chuck was really worried. He was always worried but sometimes he could feel his anxiety build in the pit of his stomach and sit there like a stone. Julie had a knack for sensing those times and she did her best to comfort him. Now was one of those times but he didn’t feel the discomfort lessening. 

It was all fun in games at first. They all went over the plan like this was nothing new to them. We’re just going outside of the city all together, something none of us has ever done in our lives. No big deal, right?

Texas and Mike were going to check out the location of the signal. The more technically inclined Burners were staying behind, just in case something happened.

None of them were naïve enough to think that nothing was going to happen. Something always did, but they just didn’t think that it would be sprung so soon and so violently.

DISTRESS CALL DETECTED. PROTOCOL: CONTINAMENT INITATED.

The voice was so calm over the sounds of gears moving and the blaring of sirens. The red flashes of light were a dramatic and disorienting touch. 

That’s when Chuck saw Mike’s face. For a split second he looked genuinely scared. Not surprised, or stunned, or shocked. Scared. Mike Chilton, the man who faced death on a daily basis just because he’s bored, the man who drove at the speed of light, the man that faced armies alone… was scared. 

And then he was gone, replaced by the thickest looking wall of metal Chuck had ever seen. 

CONTINAMENT COMPRIMISED. BORDER COMPRIMISED. DEPLOYING ANTI-BODY DROIDS. ALL PERSONEL RETURN TO DELUXE FOR CONTINAMENT PROCEDURES.

Chuck blinked and Julie was on the ground with a short yelp of pain and holding her arm. The lasers were coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Dutch was sent flying across the chamber when Whiptail suddenly combusted. 

Another shot hit Texas dead on in the chest. He slammed into the wall that separated them from Mike and fell to the ground. He wasn’t moving.

Neither was Chuck, who had ducked down behind what use to be a control panel. Whatever was firing on them wasn’t like the usual KaneCo fanfare. They were more brutal and precise. Suppression fire, cover fire, move in, control. 

Chuck saw the pattern as these… things started to move slowly from the darkness. To call them robots wasn’t accurate. They didn’t look like KaneCo bots. They didn’t act like cold machines even if they were. Despite his crippling fear, or maybe in this case because of it, he was able to tell Jules the pattern. Julie took charge after that. She managed to get Dutch to wake up. She somehow was able to coax Chuck into 9Lives and distract the… Anti-Bodies from firing on her teammates with her holograms. She gave Dutch enough time to check on Texas. He was alive, thank goodness, though badly hurt. Dutch climbed into Stronghorn and the rest was a screeching, crashing, terrifying nightmare.

The Anti-Bodies chased them just passed the Death Jump, and they made a point to destroy everything they came across. 

The Burners, once they realized they were safe, watched in horrified awe as the strange bots fired on everything. It didn’t matter if it was alive or not; it was shot at until it was a pile of ash. 

Chuck’s senses were all pulling him in different directions. He could hear his own heartbeat, loud and omnipresent like that creepy voice at the gate. He could smell his friends’ burnt flesh. That was enough to make him gag. It was horrible. He could feel himself shaking. If he wasn’t already sitting in 9Lives he was sure he would have just collapse. He couldn’t look away. No matter how much he tried he just couldn’t look away from this wanton destruction. He kept running the whole scene over in his head, over and over and over again until he couldn’t stand the thought of it anymore, and he closed his eyes and put his head on 9Lives’ dash. 

The ride back to the hideout was the longest ride of their lives, even at the speed the remaining Burners were going.

The Burners were dead. Not captured. Not defeated. Not pushed aside or being controlled or used or mislead or even misinformed. Just dead and they were bringing Motorcity with them. The Anti-bodies didn’t go away. 

Mike didn’t come back.

And Motorcity was suddenly in a complete lock-down.


	2. The Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Burners recover from their ordeal, figuring out what to do about their new enemy.

Chapter 2: The Fallout

 

Chuck gagged on the smoke pouring into the car. He had no time to think. He tried the handle on door but the fire had melted something and it did budge. Chuck quickly took to kicking the window out. Through all his coughing and panic he was able to finally make the glass give way and he scrambled to safety. At least that’s what he thought at first. Turns out he may have been safer in the burning car. Now he found himself standing with fifty guns to his face. He was shaking, his throat was dry, he couldn’t see clearly through his watering eyes, and couldn’t really hear what they were saying. What were they saying? What were they?  
The armed silhouettes started to advance on him slowly. Chuck wasn’t sure what to do next. He couldn’t call for help. There wasn’t enough time for the others to come. Should he fight? Should he surrender?  
What should I do? What should I do!? What should I do!?  
There was a sudden blue spark and the sweet sound of metal being sliced cleanly. It happened again and Chuck had to rub his eyes to see what was going on. They were robots and they fell to pieces as something fast cut through them like butter. Chuck felt his heart leap into his throat.  
“MIKEY!” Mike Spun his spark staff and smiled at Chuck.  
“You miss me?” Mike replied with his usual cool demeanor. Chuck was beside himself. He just laughed and ran over to his friend, giving him the biggest hug he could muster. Mike laughed too. “Woah there Chuckles. You’re acting like we wouldn’t see each other again.”  
“I thought you were never coming back! Everyone said… I just...! Oh man, I missed you!” Chuck was almost hysterical. He would have gone on like that if his attention was caught by the sound of the hard thud of metal coming down heavily on metal. Mike and Chuck both looked over and spotted reinforcements making their way towards them. The two armed themselves. With Mike back Chuck felt that he could take on anything, even if he was still terrified.  
“Looks like I came back just in time.” Mike gave the strange bots a wicked grin.  
“You’re telling me! I got your back, bro.” Chuck smiled too. Mike looked back and smiled at his friend.  
“Hey, don’t you hear Texas talking to you?”  
Chuck blinked, completely thrown by the question. And the voice. That was Mike.  
“What?” He tried to reach for him but Mike just smiled some more, rolled his hand up into a fist, and Chuck found himself at the receiving end of a punch to the face.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

The shoe landed with a resounding thud on the table and Chuck nearly fell out of his chair.  
“Wake up man! I’m trying to ask you somethin’!” The dreamy haze started to fade and Chuck was once again grounded in reality, sitting at the table at the hide, and trying to map out the enemies movements. Texas was leaning on the doorframe, trying his best to look like the mere act of standing up wasn’t a problem, but he was having trouble just breathing without wincing and Chuck knew better anyway.  
“You gave me a heart attack! Who throws shoes at people!?” Chuck stood up and shook the shoe at Texas. Tex just shrugged.  
“Wake up next time,” Chuck frowned. “Anyway, where’s Julie and Dutch?” Tex didn’t like to keep the conversation centered on him lately. It was a bit jarring. Chuck almost missed his over-confident boasts about how awesome he was. Lately Texas just wanted to know when he could get out of bed, or what was happening outside and nothing more. That is, if he stayed awake long enough to ask.  
“I’m right here Tex,” Dutch walked over from his corner of the room and crossed his arms. He had been working on the remains of one of the new bots that had attacked them. What did that voice call them? The Anti-Bodies. Dutch had been working on figuring out what they were made of and how to take them down. He was probably up longer than Chuck was. “Julie went to get us something to eat,” Dutch was always a pretty serious guy but lately Chuck notice a more dire tone in his voice. In a weird way he also seemed more relaxed. Maybe it was because the rest of the team was finally taking something just as seriously as he was. “What are you doing up, man?”  
“I’m tired of sitting on my butt! Texas wants a piece of the action!” Tex tried to make a quick arm-pump but ended up cringing and holding the bandages around his chest.  
“Do you have a death-wish or something? Go back to bed.” Dutch pointed back to the bed they set up for Tex. Texas just glared at Dutch.  
“Make me.” He challenged. Dutch glared back at him.  
“Really,” Dutch growled and rolled his eyes. “Just get some rest.”  
“I’ve had enough rest!”  
“Are you kidding me!? You’ve had half your chest burned off! Go back to bed!”  
Chuck just shook his head. This was the third shouting match that these two had in the past week. Frankly it was getting old, even though it was clear that they were just worried about each other. But they wasted a lot of energy bickering, and Chuck was too tired to try to stop them this time. He just sighed, dropped the shoe, and walked away.  
Chuck sat down outside the hideout and took a long solemn breath. It was so quiet outside but the tension in the air was so thick it was crushing. There was too much going on in Motorcity for him to really concentrate. Everyone was panicking. If they weren’t they were demanding answers from the Burners, answers they didn’t have. Somehow a rumor got out about all this turmoil being their fault. Well, was it rumor?  
They were the ones messing with something they didn’t really understand.  
No, the blame wasn’t something they could share. This was his fault.  
He knew The Gate was trouble as soon as Mike mentioned it, but he didn’t say anything. He thought he was being paranoid again. He thought that maybe he was just being his usual cowardly self, too scared to try something new, too scared to speak up. Now his best friend was lost, lock-out of Motorcity, and god only knew what was on the other side with him. Meanwhile the Burners were locked IN. They found themselves completely cut off from the outside world again but with the added bonus of being completely cut off from Deluxe too. It was any one’s guess what was going on up top.  
Chuck looked up at the sky and traced the patterns of the metal paneling with one of his long fingers. How was Julie dealing with all of this? She had a life in Deluxe, but now she was stuck down here.  
Stuck? Wow…  
Chuck looked at his feet when the wave of guilt crashed over him. He was a Burner, a defender of Motorcity, and he was looking at this place as if it was a prison. When did that happen? Well to be fair it was a prison NOW but he could tell by the bitterness lingering at the back of his mind that he thought that long before this new crisis started.  
Why didn’t I say something when I had the chance!?  
He picked up discarded can and tossed at it into the distances. The can went skittering wildly into a nearby trash can, causing it to topple over with a loud crash. Chuck shrank down on himself. That wasn’t what he wanted to happen. He cringed until the cascade of clashing and clatter ended. He sat there for a moment, nervously fidgeting and trying to make himself look small. His friends had been so jumpy lately. Any loud sound was enough to send them on red alert. He bit his lip and waited for Dutch and Jacob to come out guns a blazing, but nothing.  
Chuck finally exhaled. Thank goodness for small miracles. That last thing he need was to throw more fuel onto this wild fire. He stood up and dusted himself off.  
It was so quiet around the base now, so unnervingly quiet. It was almost lulling.  
It sounded like a storm had rolled in out of nowhere, the loud roaring of thundering pistons and the screaming of tires made Chuck jump out of his skin. The universe really didn’t want him to sleep ever again.  
Chuck watched 9Lives pull into the garage before forcing himself to stand up. God, he was exhausted. He never felt so tired in his life.  
He dragged himself back inside the base and gave Julie a small smile when she waved at him. His eyes were drawn to the sling cradling her right arm. It was painted with little yellow cats, probably Dutch’s handy work. Despite himself Chuck’s smile grew a little bigger. He wasn’t a fan of cats, probably never will be, but it did take the punch out of seeing Julie hurt like that when she was running around with tiny cartoon cats drawn all over her.  
“Need a… need some help?” Chuck offered his hands with a lazy slouch. Jules tilted her head as she handed him the pizza that she removed from her car.  
“Are you okay?” She asked as if Chuck was the one who got shot in the shoulder.  
“Yeah….” He took the pizzas from her without saying much else, but Chuck could feel her watching him and waiting.  
“I’m sorry Chuck….” She finally broke the silence half way to the other Burners. Chuck stopped but didn’t look at her.  
“There’s still nothing on Mike…” Chuck finished her thought for her. The two Burners stood in silence for a moment. Chuck heard Julie take a breath to say something but he stared walking again. “Let’s get these pizzas to Tex before he starts fighting with Dutch again…”  
Dinner was pretty business-y. Texas demanded to be updated on everything so Jules spent most of the time filling in the others of what was going on in Motorcity and Deluxe.  
“I got through to Claire a few days ago. She said that everything has been put on lock down. That everyone’s lock in their pods and there’s this big force field dome over the whole city.”  
“I almost forgot about that force field.” Jacob nodded thoughtfully. “So whatever activated those droids that attacked you tripped all of the security programs. This is serious.”  
“It’s about to get worse.” Dutch frowned. “I’ve been tinkering around with Robo-killer over there. These things are nasty pieces of work, man. Near blast-proof exoskeleton, stocked with so many weapons they could fill the Duke’s mansion twice, and there’s like a thousand of them! Maybe more!”  
“So?” Tex pushed himself up to sitting straighten in his seat and leaned on the table.  
“So, it took us and a couple of other local gangs to take down just a few of these things. You want me to remind you what they did to us the first time we fought them…”  
“No!” Texas glared at Dutch but it was more of a pout. “Besides, they snuck up on us. I could’ve taken ‘em if it was a fair fight.”  
“You’re lucky you’re not dead, son.” Jacob patted the younger Burner on the shoulder.  
“These things never play fair anyway. They’re actually kind of… You know… mean.” Julie grimaced at her own description, but for lack of better words she was right. Mean was a very simple and generous way of putting it.  
“The guns they use… You have to see this.” Dutch got up and went over to the table he was working at. He lifted up this heavy piece of machinery that made all the Burners tense up. Dutch walked to the garage. “Roth, help me out buddy.” He said as he pointed the gun at a blank wall. Roth whined a little but hovered behind Dutch and braced him. “This is them talking pot-shots at us…” Dutch pulled the trigger a couple of times, each time lurching him back. If Roth wasn’t holding him he would have probably hit the opposite wall. The three shots made nasty dents in the wall and it hissed menacingly as hot metal dripped to the floor. “And this is what they can do if they ever got serious….” Dutch messed with something on the gun and it started humming, a single eerie note, low and calm. Tex leaned harder on Jacob to get a better look and Chuck found himself cowering behind Julie. Dutch pulled the trigger again but this time there was very little kick and it fired without a sound, just a stream of white light that traveled cleanly through the Hideout’s wall. Not cut, or pierce. Traveled. Like there wasn’t a wall there to begin with. Dutch lowered the gun and everyone made their way to him to get a better look at the new hole in the side of their base. Small, precise, and clean… and terrifying.  
“All of these Anti-bodies have guns like that!?” Chuck’s voice cracked.  
“More like all of them have WEAPONS like this. All of their systems have a kill mode and an ‘obliterate from existence’ mode…. And I still can’t find a weak point in them.” No one said anything.  
“They’re… They’re moving from the edge of Motorcity, you know, when they’re not chasing us,” Chuck stammered a bit. All eyes were on him now. He wanted to shrink into the background again. When did he get so uncomfortable speaking in front of his friends? Their stares made it feel like the world was caving in on him. “I-I… Uh… I mapped…”  
“Chuck, relax.” Julie touched his elbow gently. “Just breathe.” Chuck took a few breaths then continued.  
“They’re moving in on more populated areas from the outskirts to the center of Motorcity… But… uh… Sometimes they just pop up randomly and kind of wreck everything then… go away…” Chuck fidgeted a bit in the silence that followed.  
“So…. What’s the plan?” Texas finally asked. Everyone looked grimly at each other, each waiting for someone to say something. “What do we do?” Tex tried rewording, but still the question was met with nervous glances and silence. Chuck looked up to Julie who returned his gaze solemnly. Then she looked at the others.  
“We keep doing what we’ve been doing.”  
“Running in circles and screaming?” Dutch muttered bitterly.  
“No,” Julie huffed. “We fight,” She turned back to Chuck and added quietly. “And we’ll try to get Mike back. Somehow.”  
“So we have a plan?” Tex tried again.  
“Yeah…” Julie stepped away from Chuck and past Dutch. She sighed and turned back to the boys with a smile. “Try not to die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last part I wrote for this fanfic. It will probably remain unfinished, to be honest.


End file.
